Saturday, August 24, 2013

Moments


08/19/2001
 
Today I tweeted "Our lives are defined by moments. Don't miss the opportunity to capture those moments!" This was inspired by our guest speaker, Dr. Eric Cupp,at convocation. He is a very dynamic and effective speaker. I was already pumped about school starting because I was inspired by a group of "pirates" over the summer, but not all of my colleagues were as excited as I was. Dr. Cupp left several of these teachers with some goose bumps today. He told a story about how he was set to go to Savannah, Georgia to deliver a keynote and his wife was getting to travel with him, but due to unfortunate circumstances, she was not able to make the trip. This was where the story actually started. It was all about how he was in a place where he had not intended to be and by God's grace he was placed there to make sure one young girl's moment was not passed up. He had several of these stories and it really hit home. As teachers, we have the most "moments" presented to us. We often call them "teachable moments." I definitely had a "moment" this summer. Somehow, I was afforded the opportunity via twitter to attend professional development. My tweep, Hal Roberts, graciously invited me to his staffs' professional development to see the keynote speaker, Dave Burgess. I read Dave's book, Teach Like A Pirate over the summer and had been participating in a twitter chat called #tlap. I was faced with several scheduling dilemmas like an principal preparation class and jur, but I am convinced now more that ever that I was meant to be right there!  I am entering this school year with several challenges, but one thing will remain at the top of the list and that is my students. I have set a goal to make sure that I don't miss any of these "moments" no matter how busy my schedule may get. I want my students to be able to see that each of them is a genius and will be successful. What they will be successful in is up to them. I will not hold them back from what they are most passionate about, no matter how many standards I have to teach in a certain time frame. There is one thing you can NEVER get back and that is time. I want them to make the most of their time in my class. I want them to discover what makes them tick. I want them to find their passions and build relationships that will last a lifetime. I want them to know that "I CARE" because I do. There are several jobs that I could do that would make me whole lot more money than teaching, but nothing can fulfill the completeness that I feel when I turn a kid into a lover of learning! My principal reminded us today that our year will be great as long as we love what we do. She followed that up with this, "If you do not love what you do, then I suggest you find something else." She is absolutely right. The kids deserve it!

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